Please welcome our guest, Michelle Roper.


Spring into Writing
It’s spring. Daffodils are blooming and awakening from their winter’s slumber. Each year, I look forward to my first sighting of the friendly yellow blossom because it means warm weather, flowers, and green trees are right around the corner. It feels great to inhale fresh air after a long winter stuck inside. It’s also a good time to take stock of my life and where I’m at this point in the year. A lot of times I find myself shaking my head and saying to anyone who will listen, “I can’t believe it’s March, already.”

I know at the beginning of the year I have a long list of New Year’s Resolutions. Usually, I have a ton of writing goals, and I’m sure most of you do, too. They usually come in many different varieties and intentions like seeds in a garden catalogue. Maybe some of these examples are on your list.

Finish the first draft of a new book.

Write every day.

Edit the book I wrote for Nanowrimo.

Finish the synopsis for the contest.

Send out a partial.

It doesn’t matter the goal, now is the time to take stock because when December rolls around, you want to look back and say I did it. I did reach my goal, and I am further along in my writing career. I stay focused.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice words you’re thinking, but I have other responsibilities. I know. I know.

Here’s a sample list of excuses for not writing. Recognize yours?

I don’t have time to write.

I’m busy with my kids.

It’s been a month since I’ve written because I’ve been working on a project for work.

The contest deadline has passed.

I have made all those excuses at one time or another. That’s why it’s important to have check points.

That’s why seeing the first daffodil is important to me. Time to take stock.

One thing I’ve learned along the way in my writing journey is that you have to check in with your writing every day. Here’s what I do to help me keep focused.

I write in my journal ever morning. A lot of times I start solving problems in my manuscript.

When I make my to-do list—I write what I want to accomplish on my writing. Vacuum. Write three pages. Dog needs walking. Etc.

Write deadlines and contest entry deadlines on your calendar right along with doctor and dental appointments. This way the family is aware of the writing schedule, too.

I keep a sticky note with my writing goals on my computer.

Sit butt in chair and write.

Basically, we have to take action and stay focused on our writing goals each and every day even in the whirlpool craziness of everyday life. A new season means new beginnings, and it’s time to take our New Year writing goals and resolutions and make them happen. Find a daffodil and let it be a visual reminder of your writing and what you want to accomplish.


Michelle Roper co-writes with Berta Platas under the pseudonym of Gillian Summers. As Gillian, they write about the adventures of Keelie Heartwood, starting with the Faire Folk Trilogy. Keelie’s story continues in the SHADOWS OF THE REDWOOD, the first book in the Scions of Shadow trilogy which will be released on June 1st, 2010.

When not writing about Keelie and her mischievous feline companion, Knot, Michelle is busy walking her two Siberian Huskies, Arwen and Raven and seeking their input on plotting, characterization, and world building.

Please help me welcome Berta Platas, who graciously agreed to blog with us today. Berta is a long time member of the Georgia Romance Writers. She writes romantic comedies with a latina flavor for St. Martins Press and young adult fiction with her friend and critique partner, Michelle Roper, under the name Gillian Summers. Their Faire Folk Trilogy, about a young half-elven girl who is sent to live with her father, an itinerant woodworker at renaissance faires, has now been extended into three more books. The first, The Tree Shepherd's
Daughter, was a National Book Award finalist.


Teaching Myself Tarot

I am in over my head in weird research. My WIP (work in progress) is about a
woman who has to fake being an expert on tarot cards. I thought this would be
easy, since I'm no expert, I'd just pick up a couple of pointers and, like my
heroine, fake the rest. Not so easy. Turns out that the best way to fake being
bad at something is to be really good at it, then pretend not to be. So here I
am, with the Complete Idiot's Guide to Tarot (this really exists, thank goodness), revisiting Jungian archetypes and learning symbolic meaning in cards that I'd previously bought because I liked the artwork.

The book is finished, and my job now is to layer in the realistic sensory
elements that I had to research: the layout of the Los Angeles neighborhood, how
the gardens smell, what Hollywood parties are really like. Fun stuff, except for
this difficult tarot thingie.

My upcoming book is about a girl who wins a major lottery prize (LUCKY CHICA -
it'll be out in January of '09), and I bugged the nice folks at the Georgia
Lottery Commission about how some of the big prize winners claimed their loot.
Lawyers? Press conferences? Limousines? They graciously answered all of my
questions, telling me tales of the angry mother-in-law who tried to convince her
lottery-winner daughter to divorce her husband before she claimed the prize -
with the husband standing right there, and the man who was afraid to claim his
prize, fearing robbers would know he was walking into the lottery's offices with
the winning ticket. Total strangers helped me to research, too. At customer
service counters and gas stations all over town, I'd buy a ticket, and ask my
fellow ticket purchasers what they would do with the prize, if they won it.
Everyone had an answer, and many had put a lot of thought into their plans. A
bonus to that fun research project was that I spent $35 on lottery tickets and
won $150. Woo hoo! I quit while I was ahead.

Given my love of research and the trouble I could get into, you won't find me
writing about gangsters, drug dealers, or the sex industry. Maybe my next book
should be about a personal trainer. I could use the exercise. You might say it's
in the cards.

Learn more about Berta www.bertaplatas.com and www.gilliansummers.com
Let's thank Berta and ask her questions Sunday and Monday.